Dual Internet Connection Sharing

Alkatr0z

Mastermind

Posts: 1883

Loc: Adelaide, Australia

3+ Months Ago

Hi there,

Not sure if this can be done but felt this was the place to ask..
I have two computers which are networked directly to eachother. One is currently the Internet Connection Sharer though both are independently capable of connecting to the net through their own modems. Only one phone line unfortunately Hence the ICS. Does anyone know a way I can get the ICS to be bidirectional? Example: If my computer is connected the other one automatically goes through mine and vice versa. I have attempted to do this by manually setting the gateway and setting them both to static IP addresses. Only way I can really think of is using 3rd party proxy software, which I'm rather unwilling to do as it adds another step(enabling the proxy on the other machine each time it needs to connect through my computers). I'm also rather unwilling as you can probably tell to purchase a router as my cash funds are rather low.

Thanks any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Alkatr0z

rjmthezonenet

Expert

Posts: 526

Loc: St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

3+ Months Ago

Hmm... I think you shouldn't do it.

grinch2171

Moderator

Posts: 6816

Loc: Martinsburg, WV

3+ Months Ago

Is this a 56k line or DSL? If it were DSL I would save some money and buy a router. 56K I would not even bother but that is my opinion. I guess with 56k, you wouldn't want both PC's connected to the net at the same time. I haven't priced a router so I don't really know how much you would have to throw down to buy one. I would check pricewatch and see how much they could be.

Alkatr0z

Mastermind

Posts: 1883

Loc: Adelaide, Australia

3+ Months Ago

Lol okay few facts.. One I am too far from an exchange to get broadband(barring Sattelite). 2. The other computer spends a large portion of time on the net but my computer connects extremely slowly through it even if the other computer isn't using the net. So I'm stuck with 56k and I want to have two computers connected. I am doing it one way at present but wanted to see if anyone knew of a way to get it both ways.

snail

Graduate

Posts: 109

3+ Months Ago

Wait a minute...I read about Windows 98 having the cabability to utilize more than one modem to increase speed...if you have a modem for each computer(2 at least in total) then my question is: If you connect both to one computer and let that computer be the sharing source of the Internet connection, would its connection speed equate to faster shared Internet connection speed?

Alkatr0z

Mastermind

Posts: 1883

Loc: Adelaide, Australia

3+ Months Ago

This is a pretty old topic now, snail.

Anyway the main basis of the question was that I had two computers with a modem each but didn't want to have one computer powered on at all times to provide internet for the other without using multiple phone lines. In the end I came to the conclusion it wasn't really feasible except by writing custom software that was beyond my abilities at the time, I can see how I would write it easily now but have no need.

If your interested in reading more about it do a search for load balancing. You can do it with things like Cisco Routers(no doubt other brands as well) and an old PC with pfsense installed for example. You can even do it with linux ip tables and just linux though its a bit more involved than using pfsense to do it. And yes windows 98 as I recall did have an option to do it, As I recall it was in the properties of your dial up connection that you could set it up though not sure how well it really worked.